Digitisation crucial to Ghana Beyond Aid – Bawumia

Digitisation crucial to Ghana Beyond Aid – Bawumia

On Wednesday, 15 May 2019, Ghana’s Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia participated in the first day of the Ghana Digital Roadmap Conference on the theme: Moving Ghana Beyond Aid: Expanding the local digital economy in Accra.

The conference is to review the Information and Communication Technology for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) policy document in line with digital opportunities and generate ideas to develop a strategy and an implementation plan to establish Ghana as the leader in ICT innovation in Africa by 2023.

“Now is the time to take a critical look at our seminal ICT policy document, the ICT for Accelerated Development Policy, identify gaps and recommend changes required to provide the right framework to harness Ghana’s digital economy and also nurture our local ICT industry,” Dr Bawumia said.

“We realize there are so many measures to kill mosquitoes but we thought to ourselves, is it a problem of mosquitoes living or the fact that they’re in our space?

“Somebody is his room with mosquito coil and net but when there is light out, he goes out for fresh air and gets bitten.”

“What can we do for people who are outside their rooms and getting fresh air” they thought.

The robot, built with computer programming, emits ultrasonic sounds.

Ultrasound is not different from “normal” sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies from person to person and is approximately 20 kilohertz in healthy young adults. Ultrasound is used in many different fields, including detecting objects and measuring distance. Its imaging is often used in medicine.

Animals such as bats use ultrasound for locating prey and obstacles.

‘Anquito’ emits 38 kilohetz which is thought to ward off mosquitoes. It is equipped with sensors which stop and change direction after encountering an obstacle.

The students are working to create a miniature of the machine and employ artificial intelligence to make it smarter.

Google’s ethics board shut down

Google’s ethics board shut down

An independent group set up to oversee Google’s artificial intelligence efforts, has been shut down less than a fortnight after it was launched.

The Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) was due to look at the ethics around AI, machine learning and facial recognition.

One member resigned and there were calls for another to be removed.

The debacle raises questions about whether firms should set up such bodies.

Google told the BBC: “It’s become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted.

“So we’re ending the council and going back to the drawing board. We’ll continue to be responsible in our work on the important issues that AI raises, and will find different ways of getting outside opinions on these topics.”

There had been an outcry over the appointment of Kay Coles James, who is president of conservative thinktank The Heritage Foundation. Thousands of Google employees signed a petition calling for her removal, over what they described as “anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant” comments.

At the weekend, board member Prof Alessandro Acquisti resigned, tweeting: “While I’m devoted to research grappling with key ethical issues of fairness, rights and inclusion in AI, I don’t believe this is the right forum for me to engage in this important work.”

The panel had been announced at a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had planned to meet four times in 2019.

One of the eight members, Joanna Bryson, a professor from Bath University, expressed anger at Google’s decision to pull the plug.

She tweeted: “I thought there were enough smart people at Google that there must be some process for either communicating or improving decisions. But I was wrong, and the people who called me naive were right.”